


Endurance

by Atsuki-hime (Atsuki_hime)



Category: Interstellar (2014), Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Canonical Character Death, M/M, Mild Blood, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 07:18:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3110948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atsuki_hime/pseuds/Atsuki-hime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Which part are you?”</p><p>“I’m his Will to Live.”</p><p>“Ah, so you’re here to help me, then.”</p><p>“As much as I can.”</p><p>“So what can you tell me?”</p><p>“That you look good for someone who is probably over a hundred years old.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Freeze

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Taudi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taudi/gifts).



> Many thanks to M and T for their beta work! Without them, this would be a jumbled mess of plot holes.
> 
> To Taudi - I'm sorry I couldn't include everything you wanted, but I hope you enjoy this story anyway!
> 
> To everyone - This story isn't technically an Interstellar AU - it's more of a blend of Interstellar and my own original ideas. There are major spoilers for the film, though, so here is fair warning.

_. . .begin transmission. . ._  
.  
.  
.  
. 

“When will I wake up?” Iruka asks.

They poke and prod him, attaching monitors to read his vitals and testing his body for anything out of the ordinary.

The room they are in is white and clinical.

“We will wake you up the moment Team Minato arrives,” Tsunade says from behind her clipboard. They have had this conversation many times before.

“How long will that be?”

“Shortest expected arrival time is twenty-five years. The maximum could be much longer.”

He nods and takes a deep breath. Someone begins to draw blood from his arm.

“You will have three days of Rehabilitation after awakening, and then Extraction will take place on the fourth day. If I am not… _around_ during that time, then someone I have personally trained and approved will be overseeing Extraction.”

Iruka nods again. He is nervous.

“Will I dream?” Iruka asks as they finish the physical and motion for him to remove the sheet around his waist. He does so and is guided, completely naked, up the platform and into the awaiting pod.

“Most likely not,” Tsunade says, checking off a few more things from the clipboard before finally making eye contact with Iruka. She smiles at him softly. “Others have testified that waking up seemed to happen only seconds after being put under. It throws them off for a while, hence the three day Rehabilitation.”

“I see,” Iruka replies. He has heard this all before. It helps ease him into the incredibly foreign pod. His vitals are being checked one last time.

“You are doing your country and your planet a great service, Iruka Umino,” Tsunade says gravely. Iruka has heard that before too. The pod begins to fill with silvery fluid.

The fluid comes up to his shoulders. This is it. There is no coming back.

He’s about to fully submerge himself in the pod when Tsunade says, “He’ll be happy to see you when he gets back.”

Iruka’s last thought before the darkness is that he doesn’t believe her.

\---

Iruka dreams.

He dreams about the stars. They are small, they are incomprehensibly huge. The universe is made of stardust.

Iruka dreams he is stardust, flowing along a grand river into every corner of the universe. He sees new planets, visits other solar systems, explores new galaxies. He collects more stardust along the way – they are his friends, his family. They join him in his interstellar journey, and he is happy, but he is incomplete.

Soon, his journey changes from exploratory to searching. He searches for his missing piece of stardust, the piece right in the center that holds him together. He searches for hours, years, centuries, eternity, until he feels like he’s searched every inch of the universe and he is tired and old and faded.

But there, on a small planet covered in ice, Iruka sees a spark. It’s his missing piece of stardust, so alone and so far away. Iruka reaches out with one hand to say _I’m here, I missed you, come back to me._  
  
But the missing stardust is different. One gray eye is now scarred and angry red, glowing in the white backdrop of the ice planet. The missing stardust is old and tired, just like Iruka, and Iruka weeps for his missing piece.

When Iruka reaches out, the missing stardust backs away, and Iruka weeps more, begging for his missing piece to come back.

Instead, the missing stardust dismisses him and leaves him by himself. Deep throughout every single speck of stardust that makes up Iruka, something reverberates and shakes him to the core.

_Move on._

The missing stardust leaves and Iruka is hollow. He wanders the universe, empty and incomplete, until everything collapses and there is nothing but darkness.

Iruka does not move on.

\---

When Iruka wakes up, he does not remember his dream.

\---

Waking up is strange. He feels sluggish and everything is blurry. There are loud noises, but they seem muffled, as if his ears are stuffed with cotton.

He is wet and cold.

There are hands on him, and he is lifted out of the strange contraption he was in before. His fight or flight instincts kick in but his body refuses to move. He tries to speak but his words are slurred. Everything is out of focus and he knows they are talking to him, but they are distorted and impossible to understand.

Slowly, his vision starts to come into focus. Everything is white and too bright for him, so he squints heavily against the room. 

He can feel the hands that pulled him out of the large pod touching him all over, pulling his eyelids up and flashing lights in his eyes, depressing his tongue with glass rods, pressing firmly into his muscles. They touch and press and feel every part of his body before someone murmurs something into his ear – something he still can’t understand – and he is guided through several rooms to a shower. The water is warm and chases the chill in his bones away as someone washes his hair and scrubs his body.

He is washed and then towel-dried, and by now he feels extremely exhausted even though he has the distinct feeling he hasn’t moved in a very, very long time. He is guided to yet another stark white room where a dark-haired woman in a stark white lab coat gives him stark white underwear and scrubs to put on. He does so clumsily, and needs her help pulling the top on, but once they’re done she smiles at him and speaks.

“I’ve been waiting to meet you for a very long time, you know,” she says softly, and Iruka can finally understand her. The fog in his head is starting to clear.

“Who are you?” he asks, and his voice is throaty with disuse.

“My name is Shizune,” she says with a bright smile. “I’m glad you can finally hear me. It seems the remicitol is starting to wear off.”

Iruka stares.

“Well, let’s get you settled,” Shizune continues, motioning for him to follow her. He does. “I’ve been in charge of monitoring your vitals and making sure you were stable for the last twenty-three years. Your cryosleep has gone smoothly. You’ve actually been moved from your original location in the Konoha Sector to here in the Iwa Sector. Unfortunately Konoha Sector was lost to the Dust.”

Konoha Sector. His home. Lost.

Iruka’s heart aches as he trudges behind Shizune.

“That was ten years ago,” she continues on, oblivious to Iruka’s pain. “It shows how bad our situation is getting. We predict that in the next ten years, Suna Sector will be next.”

Shizune guides him down a very long hallway. The colors begin to warm from white to gray to deep brown, and as they walk, Shizune fills him in with a bit of what has happened since he was put in cryosleep. She tells him it’s been eighty-three years since his Freeze. Habitable land has been reduced from seventy-six percent to forty-nine percent in that time, and they’ve lost three Domes to the Dust.

She tells him Team Minato’s ship, the _Will of Fire_ , docked four days ago.

Iruka’s heart misses a beat.

He’s about to ask her the status of the crew when she opens a door to a large office decked in rich mahogany. He knows it is fake mahogany since the Dust claimed most of the forests long before his Freeze.

Shizune smiles warmly at him as she motions for him to sit on the couch in front of the large desk. She pops out of view for a moment before returning with a large blanket that she wraps around his shoulders. He pulls it tight around himself – the chill of the pod hasn’t left his bones yet and he appreciates the warmth.

He hears Shizune tinkering around somewhere in the background, but all he can think about is that in what seemed like a blink of an eye, he is eighty-three years in the future, his home is gone, and his planet is dying. Despite the massive amount of psychological training he underwent before the Freeze, he can’t shake the overwhelming sense of loneliness.

Shizune pops back into view, holding a teacup with filled with a steaming liquid.

“You should be able to drink this, it’s very mild,” she says, and hands him the cup. He takes it, warming his hands on the porcelain, inhaling the mellow aroma of the tea deeply. Shizune smiles at him before saying, “Now just wait here for a few moments. The Hokage will be with you shortly.”

The Hokage.

Shizune exits the room, leaving Iruka practically curled around his tea in confusion. If Konoha Sector had been eliminated, then why was there still a Hokage? Shouldn’t he be meeting the Tsuchikage, leader of Iwa?

He wonders who led the people of the Konoha Sector before the Dust took over. Tsunade, the Hokage who orchestrated the entire operation that sent Team Minato on the Expedition and Iruka into cryosleep for over eighty years, was a just and strong ruler. She’d had her vices – she’d been a horrible gambler – but Iruka had looked up to her as a role model during the years he’d worked with her.

Iruka frowns. Thinking about the amount of time that has passed – that he has missed – makes him ache in ways he fully expected. He mourns, because his friends and family are long gone. To save their forsaken planet, Iruka had to give them up, and that hurts deeply and more than anything else has ever hurt before. In this time, he is utterly alone.

However, thinking about _him_ hurts in a completely different way. It isn’t something he can bury in the past. This pain haunts both the time he came from and the time that awaits him. It’s longing and anxiety. It makes him question all of his decisions that have led him up to this moment.

It gives him hope and dread.

Iruka’s thoughts are interrupted when a vision from his past walks in, and he’s left gaping in surprise.

“Ah, Iruka, I see eighty-three years in cryosleep have done nothing for your manners,” Tsunade chides from the doorway. She looks older than she did the day of the Freeze, but not eighty-three years older.

“Tsunade-sama,” Iruka says roughly, blinking a few times to make sure he’s not hallucinating. “You’re…here.”

“Excellent observation,” she says, but it’s light and full of humor. She walks over to the heavy desk and takes a seat. “I’m sure you have many, many questions, and I’ll answer the simplest one first. Twelve years after your Freeze, an adjustment was made to the plan. The Kages believed it best to keep as much of the original team as possible for Extraction. I was put into cryosleep at that time, and then pulled out two years ago when we got the first transmission from the _Will of Fire_ about its return. I have been leading the operation again ever since.”

“That’s understandable,” Iruka says slowly, taking that all in. Originally, Tsunade would have trained a successor, and if necessary, that successor would have trained another. Thinking back, perhaps that wasn’t the best plan after all. Details could get lost through the generations.

“It’s a lot to take in, I’m sure,” Tsunade says, steepling her fingers. “I’m sure I’m the last person you would expect to walk through that door, not to mention waking up in Iwa and not Konoha.”

“You’re right,” Iruka replies. “I knew there would be many changes, but I didn’t expect to feel so…”

“Alone?” Tsunade finishes for him. Iruka nods. “I understand. I’ve been through the same thing. It’s good to see you again, Iruka. Nice to see a familiar face.”

“It is.” Iruka manages a small smile. Tsunade being here with him, one familiar face amongst many he doesn’t recognize, gives him solace in what was slowly becoming a sense of panic.

“I’m glad, then.” Tsunade smiles at him briefly, before returning to her usual serious demeanor. “Now, I know it’s hazy, but do you know why you’re awake?”

“The _Will of Fire_ and Team Minato have returned from the Expedition with data from the Lazarus missions. My job is to catalog the data, and if any of them have gone into Catatonia, I am to perform Extraction on them.” The words roll off of Iruka’s tongue fluidly, uttered many times before today.

“That is correct. However, there have been complications.”

Iruka’s heart stutters.

“What kind of complications?” he asks.

Tsunade looks grave.

“Only one member of Team Minato has returned.”

Team Minato – four members – and only one has returned. Many thoughts run through Iruka’s head. What happened during the Expedition? Why has only one person returned? _Who_ is that person?

“Who?” Iruka asks shakily.

“Kakashi Hatake.”

Iruka didn’t realize he had been holding his breath until he lets it out shakily, trembling so hard he almost spills his tea. He sets the cup down on Tsunade’s desk so that he doesn’t ruin her carpet.

_He’s_ alive. 

Iruka is relieved and frightened and deeply, deeply upset. Minato, Obito, Rin – what of their fate?

“And the rest of Team Minato?”

“We don’t know,” Tsunade says, frowning. “The _Will of Fire_ docked four days ago. When we found Kakashi, he was in Catatonia.”

Iruka’s heart drops.

“Catatonia,” Iruka repeats, barely a whisper. Catatonia, the defense mechanism taught to all members of Team Minato in the event of a catastrophe. To protect their mind and all of the information preserved in it, they were trained to regress as far into the subconscious as possible until they became nothing but a shell. During Catatonia, their bodies are unresponsive and barely alive. The information held within their minds could not be retrieved any other way beside Extraction. However, Catatonia comes with a price. Without an exceptional Extractor to coax the Catatonic person out of Catatonia, the chances of coming out of it are slim to none.

Iruka is the only Extractor who has been able to successfully retrieve vital information and also guide each member of Team Minato out of all levels of Catatonia up to Level Three. That was the reason he was chosen to Freeze, awaiting Team Minato’s return.

“What level?” Iruka asks.

“Level Four.”

Iruka closes his eyes. _Level Four_. What could have possibly happened during the Expedition that caused Kakashi to regress into Level Four Catatonia?

“I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear, Iruka,” Tsunade says, and he can hear the compassion in her voice. “However, saving our people is still our most important objective. We need to find out what happened during the Expedition, what happened to Team Minato, and if there is any hope for our planet.”

“I understand,” Iruka replies a little unsteadily. He does not open his eyes. “The mission is our priority, it always has been. Complications were inevitable.”

"I'm glad that we still see eye to eye." There is a tint of relief in her voice.

"Can I see him?" Iruka asks before he can stop himself. He opens his eyes to see Tsunade looking at him solemnly.

"I don’t think that’s wise. Not only that, but you’re not in the best condition right now. Rehabilitation should take at least three days and I can already tell you're exhausted."

It's true. Iruka's body feels leaden and even though he's been asleep for eight decades, all he wants to do is rest.

"That's enough for today, Iruka," Tsunade continues. She taps a button on her desk and a few seconds later, Shizune walks back into the room with a wheelchair. Iruka eyes it suspiciously, ready to object, but Tsunade interjects before he can even begin. "You will sit in that wheelchair, brat, and let Shizune take you to your quarters. You will be given liquids and your vitals will be carefully monitored. If you need a light sedative to sleep, we can give that to you too.”

"Tsunade-sama," Iruka whines, but she just raises her eyebrows at him challengingly. Iruka sighs, and lets Shizune help him into the wheelchair. It would be a cold day in Hell when he admits he needed it, but he is secretly glad he doesn't have to walk to his room. He can barely keep his eyes open from exhaustion.

"Get some rest and we will start Rehabilitation tomorrow," Tsunade says as Shizune begins to wheel him out of the room. "Everything rides on this mission, Iruka. We need to save our people."

As the door shuts behind them, Iruka wonders who will save Kakashi.

\---  
The magnetic field around the Earth is weakening.

Over two centuries, ever stronger solar winds have stripped the thin layer of protection the Earth had from the harsh ultraviolet rays of the sun almost to nothingness. Temperatures have risen drastically, causing a rapid desertification of the planet. Forests have disappeared and many species have become extinct. Cancer rates skyrocketed. In an attempt to protect themselves, humans built the Domes to shield themselves from the radiation, grow crops and raise domesticated animals in a safe environment. For a time, it worked, until the Dust destroyed Kiri Sector.

The Dust - the accumulation from the deserts that has covered over half of the Earth - travels the planet in giant waves borne by destructive winds. The Dust overtook Kiri Sector, cracking the Dome and destroying the city inside. 

In a time where the human population was declining and struggling to survive, space exploration was the last thing on people's minds. However, as realization dawned that the magnetic field was disappearing and that Earth was destined to become another Mars, the Kages of each sector gathered a group of elite scientists and researchers who looked to the cosmos for a solution to their problem. Those scientists, who answered only to the Kages, became known as the Advancement of New-world Breakthrough Unit - ANBU.

 

Shortly after the destruction of Kiri Sector, ANBU detected something near Saturn. Unable to determine what the anomaly was, a probe was sent to collect data. As soon as the probe reached the anomaly, it was sucked in, baffling the scientists. They debated on what could have caused the disappearance of the probe. It couldn’t have been a black hole, or everything else within reasonable distance would be sucked inside as well, warping time and space around it. What else had that kind of power?

Six months later, ANBU was in the midst of preparing a new probe to venture out to Saturn when a beacon from the original probe showed up. Soon after, data began to filter in. The data showed that the anomaly was a wormhole.

As more data from the probe was transmitted back to ANBU, they received images and data indicating the probe had been to another solar system. According to the data, this solar system was millions of light years away. It took a year, but after analyzing all of the data the probe sent back from the solar system it visited, they were able to determine that the wormhole didn't spontaneously appear. It had to have been put there.

Who or what put it there? After many deliberations throughout ANBU, they finally settled that some sort of alien species that resided in the fifth dimension placed the wormhole near Saturn – it was the only explanation that made sense. However, the wormhole provided seemingly safe passage to a solar system with twelve planets that orbited a black hole, deemed Gargantua. It wasn’t something that the human race could choose to ignore when they were already living on borrowed time. Soon after all the data from the probe was analyzed, the Lazarus missions were born. 

Twelve teams were sent through the wormhole to each of the twelve planets. Their mission was to get a signal back to earth indicating whether the planet was habitable or not. ANBU had managed to solve the problem experienced by the original probe with getting a signal through the wormhole; however, it could only broadcast a green light or a red light signal. After a decade of waiting for the signals from the teams, a green light signal arrived from only three planets, named after the teams sent to investigate them – Senju, Hatake, and Uchiha. The other prospects were considered failures, their teams lost. Such was the price of the Lazarus missions.

In the meanwhile, Operation Endurance was set in to motion. After the first green light came in from the Lazarus missions, construction began on the colony ship _Jiraiya_ , named after the head engineer of ANBU who proposed the idea. It was built to transport the population left on Earth safely through space and the wormhole to the habitable planet. However, once the ship was built, several unsuccessful attempts to launch the ship for testing raised a new problem: the ship was too heavy, and would not be able to leave the planet with the current technology humans possessed. However, if humans were able to harness fifth-dimensional physics, just like the beings that put the wormhole near Saturn, it may be possible. That’s when work on The Equation began.

Operation Endurance was staffed with Team Minato, the astronauts who would embark on the journey through the wormhole. Team Minato consisted of Minato Uzumaki, a biologist and Captain of the team; Rin Nohara, a physicist; Obito Uchiha, a geologist; and Kakashi Hatake, a pilot. Their mission was to contact and resupply the broadcasting teams from the Lazarus missions, as well as set up base on the most habitable planet out of the three. After that, they would return to assist in relocating the human race to their new home.

Iruka Umino, the Extractor, trained heavily with Team Minato. In the event that one of the members of Team Minato felt that their ability to return to Earth healthy enough or in a well enough state of mind was compromised, Catatonia would be induced. Iruka Umino’ s job was to collect the information possessed by the Catatonic crew member through a process called Extraction, and if possible, bring the person out of Catatonia as well.

The _Will of Fire_ launched on the Expedition fifteen years after the Lazarus missions passed through the wormhole, and another decade after that, Iruka Umino was put into cryosleep to await their return.  
\---

On the first day of Rehabilitation, Iruka does a lot of reading. He is too tired to do a lot of physical activity, even though he is forced to take a fifteen minute walk every three hours. In between walks, he reads and reads and reads. Newspaper articles, magazine articles, peer reviewed journals, history book passages – anything and everything he can get his hands on that tells him what he has missed. Thirteen years after Operation Endurance launched, Iruka went into cryosleep and everything after that is news to him.

He reads about the loss of habitable land and the destruction of the Konoha Sector and Tsunade’s Freeze. How the people of Konoha were distributed amongst the remaining sectors, and how it was decided that it would be best if the displaced Hokage was put under cryosleep to protect Operation Endurance at all costs.

He reads classified reports from Operation Endurance that Tsunade gave him clearance to look over. A lot of it is stuff he already knew. The almost three years it took for the _Will of Fire_ to travel to Saturn went smoothly. Communications between ANBU and Team Minato were frequent. Soon after they passed through the wormhole, all communications ceased.

They received no word from Team Minato for over eight decades. Some of the articles Iruka read expressed doubt about Operation Endurance, showing a decline in the people’s hope. Unrest followed the hopelessness, calling for some sort of backup plan for Operation Endurance. If Team Minato didn’t come back with good news – or didn’t come back at all – then there must be some other way.

According to the reports Iruka was reading, though, there wasn’t.

The original plan was for Iruka to go under cryosleep for one hundred years before awakening. They had to account for any time dilation that may occur in this far away galaxy, especially because of the presence of the giant black hole, Gargantua. They were uncertain how large that time dilation was, but the longest they could keep Iruka under cryosleep without risking his safety was a century. If Team Minato didn’t make it before the end of Iruka’s natural life after cryosleep, the Earth may be doomed by then anyway.

However, eighty one years after the _Will of Fire_ passed through the wormhole, it did not return the same way. The wormhole near Saturn was constantly monitored, but the _Will of Fire_ seemed to manifest about four million miles outside of Jupiter’s orbit. Where it came from still remains a mystery, but it was on a clear route to Earth.

The rest, Iruka had been briefed on by Tsunade. The _Will of Fire_ had docked five days ago with only one crew member instead of four, and he was in Catatonia.

That evening, while Iruka drinks the vegetable broth he’s allowed to have for the first day, Tsunade offers him a sedative that will ensure a dreamless sleep. Iruka frowns at it, declines it at first, but when Tsunade says it would be best to hold on to it with a knowing crease in her brow, he palms the sedative and forgets about it in his pocket.

That night, Iruka dreams of the past. He dreams of those who he gave up when he went under cryosleep – Anko, Raidou, Izumo, Genma, Kotetsu – and how they had beamed at him proudly when they found out that their friend was going to help save the world. He dreams of his parents, who he had lost long before he’d been a part of Operation Endurance.

He dreams of Kakashi Hatake and Kakashi’s heat and Kakashi’s scent. He dreams of Kakashi’s slouch and Kakashi’s cold, lifeless body floating in space.

He dreams of four-year-old Kakashi watching his father embark on the Lazarus missions and then five-year-old Kakashi watching his mother wilt away to melanoma.

He dreams of Kakashi’s goofy grin and the dark shade of gray his eyes took when _move on, Iruka._

Iruka wakes up and stares at the ceiling for a very, very long time before he takes the sedative and wakes up from a dreamless sleep the next morning.

\---

On the second day of Rehabilitation, most of the remicitol in his system has finally cleared and his energy levels have increased tenfold. He feels better than ever since waking up from cryosleep and the first thing he wants to do is go outside. Tsunade grins at him when he requests to visit the Dome, and says he can go with an escort. She presses a button on her desk and calls for Shizune, asking her to send in someone named Ajitama.

Iruka’s jaw drops at the person who walks in, and Tsunade grins. The boy standing at the door, who couldn’t be much older than eighteen years old, looks exactly like Naruto Uzumaki.

“Iruka, I would like for you to meet Ajitama Uzumaki,” Tsunade says. “He is Minato’s great, great grandchild, making him Naruto’s great grandchild.”

Ajitama beams at the mention of his ancestor.

“He is currently undergoing education as a biologist,” she says, looking very proud. Tsunade, just like Iruka, had a soft spot for Naruto, and the boy standing at the door is a blast from the past for Iruka. “He’s almost done with his studies, and is at the top of his class.”

“Good morning, Iruka Umino,” Ajitama says, bowing politely. “I’ve wanted to meet you ever since my great grandfather told me stories about you when I was a small boy. He told me that after Team Minato departed and my great, great grandmother passed away, he was a troublemaker, and that you were the first person to see past his antics and give him the guidance he needed.”

Iruka remembers Naruto Uzumaki well. Naruto had grown up to be a fine young man by the time Iruka had underwent cryosleep, a fiery young boy of eighteen with sights on a Hyuga girl and tons of passion to devote to Operation Endurance. Naruto wanted to be a biologist, just like his father, and Iruka now sees the trait has followed down the family line.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Ajitama,” Iruka says. “You surprised me for a moment. You look just like Naruto. He was very dear to me, like my own little brother.”

“He considered you a father figure,” Ajitama replies politely. Iruka sees that Ajitama’s personality mirrors Minato more than it does Naruto.

“Ajitama will be your guide around Iwa Sector,” Tsunade says, standing from her desk. She walks around and pats Iruka on the shoulder. “Be here before noon for lunch and vitals.”

Iruka nods, and follows Ajitama out of the office, then out of the building. They get into a government-issued jeep that has seen better days and Ajitama drives Iruka out in to Iwa.

Iwa’s Dome looks very similar to Konoha’s Dome. The entire city is encased in a giant, polarized dome made out of a synthetic material that resembles glass. The air inside the Dome is regulated, and the Dome harnesses the massive amounts of ultraviolet light swathing the Earth for a lot of its power. Iwa is a big city, just like Konoha was, bustling with activity. It reminds him of home.

Ajitama acts as Iruka’s tour guide, showing him his favorite places in town from the theater to the shopping district. Iruka soaks it all up, noticing how it seems like nothing and everything has changed. Technological advancement for recreational use has slowed significantly since the magnetic field began dissipating and it became mostly reserved for scientific purposes, so in the eighty-three years Iruka had been asleep, nothing much had changed. However, only about one percent of the population in Iwa had been alive when Iruka had gone into cryosleep, and they should be in their late eighties or pushing ninety years old. Everyone else, even people older than Iruka, hadn’t even been born before his Freeze.

On the way back to Headquarters, driving along the edge of the city, Iruka is able to see the land outside of the Dome. Everything is barren. There is a constant haze of dust kicked up by the winds clouding the view outside, but he can’t see any trees or grass for as far as his line of sight will let him. The sky is crystal clear, though, and aurora is dim against the light of the sun. He knows that at night, the sky is bright with aurora, almost a nightly occurrence.

They arrive back for lunch, where Iruka eats solid food for the first time and his vitals are impeccable. He spends the rest of the day meeting the Extraction team, led by Inojin Yamanaka, a psychologist in his late fifties and grandchild of Inoichi Yamanaka. Inoichi had personally trained Iruka, and Inojin is just as talented, if not more so, than his grandfather.

That night, Iruka stares at the bottle holding the remainder of the sedative that Tsunade gave him for a very long time, before he takes a dose and sleep dreamlessly until morning.

\---

On the third day of Rehabilitation, Iruka goes through several brain scans to make sure everything is in good shape to perform Extraction. He eats lunch with Ajitama, and after the last scan he has some time to himself.

He aimlessly wanders the halls of Headquarters, smiling politely to everyone he passes. This building is different than the one in Konoha, so he is still learning his way around. He passes the Engineering department where _Jiraiya_ is currently held underground. He passes the Biology department, where a number of different experiments ranging from botany to biochemistry are conducted for the production of food and maintenance of life. He passes the Cryosleep pods and before he realizes it, he is standing in the middle of the Medical Ward.

The Medical Ward is small, mostly used to treat work related injuries and provide emergency care to employees and their families. There are three rooms that can be used to hold patients overnight, and one of them is currently in use. The folder clasped to a clipboard attached to the door has a familiar name scribbled on it: Kakashi Hatake.

Iruka wonders what it looks like inside the room. He is still forbidden by Tsunade to visit Kakashi, and for good reason. A Catatonic patient needs constant monitoring and care, and while Iruka is a prime Extractor, he is no nurse. He wonders if they had to bring in special equipment or special doctors to treat Kakashi. He wonders what Kakashi looks like right now.

_Move on, Iruka._

Iruka frowns. The day the _Will of Fire_ launched on the Expedition, Kakashi had looked Iruka square in the eye and told him to move on. It had been abrupt, catching Iruka off guard and leaving him speechless. Then Kakashi left with the _Will of Fire_ and Iruka could do nothing but stew in the mess of hurt, confusion and anger. Kakashi had always been an evasive man, shying away from any questions that pried too deep into his past. But for Kakashi to drop that bomb on Iruka out of nowhere and then hitch a ride into space where Iruka couldn’t reach him was just a little _too_ evasive for Kakashi, and that never settled with Iruka.

“You’re going to make that door explode if you keep staring at it like that.”

Iruka startles, turning to face Tsunade, who is looking at him with a raised eyebrow and a _I know what you’re thinking about_ expression.

“I apologize, Tsunade-sama,” Iruka says hurriedly, feeling the heat of embarrassment pool in his cheeks.

"Don't apologize for having emotions," Tsunade says briskly, flapping her hand at him, dismissing his apology. "However, I need you to stop sulking outside of Kakashi's room and follow me so I can brief you on tomorrow's Extraction."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama," Iruka replies, following Tsunade to her office. They sit, and Tsunade pulls out a small chip encased in a clear box from her desk.

"Everything that happened during the Expedition should be on this chip," Tsunade begins in a strict business-like tone. "It is password protected for safety to prevent any accidental deletions or misuse if it happens to fall in the wrong hands. We know what the original password was, but it has been changed."

Iruka frowns.

"Something happened on the Expedition, and it seems to have been pretty bad. There's a damaged docking hatch on the _Will of Fire_ and one of the transporters are missing. Kakashi has scars and he's missing an eye."

"He's missing a _what_?" Iruka exclaims, rising from his chair. The more he learns, the more it seems like good news is unsalvageable.

"An eye, Iruka," Tsunade says, clearly unamused with him. Iruka flushes and sits back down. "The main priority during Extraction will be to get the password for the chip. After that, you will get as much information not contained on this chip as you can. Lastly, if at all possible, you will save Kakashi."

Iruka thought he had been fully prepared for this mission. Despite Kakashi's sudden declaration to _move on, Iruka_ before embarking on the Expedition, Iruka had thirteen years to come to terms with that before the Freeze. He thought he'd be able to keep his emotions under control when Kakashi returned and discuss Kakashi's departure with him like civilized adults, even if what they had was unsalvageable. Iruka just wanted closure.

Now, three members of Team Minato are missing, Kakashi had obviously been hurt during the Expedition and something caused him to seclude himself so far inside of his mind that he may never come back. After all this time, Iruka still feels the heavy weight of dread in his gut when Tsunade tells him that his last priority is saving Kakashi.

"I've never performed Extraction on someone in Level Four Catatonia," Iruka says, disheartened.

"If there was a time for you to prove that you are the best Extractor we've ever had, it would be now," Tsunade replies sternly. Iruka nods.

They go over the rest of the details of the Extraction, and then Tsunade dismisses Iruka with a brusque, "Get some rest, Iruka." Iruka nods at her, but finds himself wandering aimlessly back to the Medical Ward. He stands in front of the closed door of Kakashi's room with his hand on the doorknob, but he doesn't walk in. Instead, he rests his forehead against the door, and takes a deep breath.

"I don't know why you left the way you did, Kakashi," Iruka whispers, uncaring of who sees him. "I'm not sure I really care anymore. You and Rin and Obito and Minato - you were all supposed to come back in one piece, hopefully with good news. But instead, it's only you, and you're in a state of Catatonia I've never worked with before."

A few moments of silence pass as Iruka collects his thoughts.

"I was so, _so_ relieved when Tsunade-sama told me it was you who came back. I don't care if you don't want to see me. I don't care if, for some reason, you hate my guts. If anyone else but you had come back instead, I don't know what I would have done with myself." Iruka takes a deep breath. "I will save you, Kakashi. I will save you, even if you don't want me to."


	2. Extraction

The room the Extraction will take place in is stark white, just like the room Iruka was in when he first woke from the Freeze. There are two beds in the center of the room, surrounded by massive amounts of equipment needed for Extraction. Inojin and his team are in the process of double-checking the proper calibration of equipment when Iruka arrives.

"Good to see you, Iruka," Inojin greets Iruka.

"You as well," Iruka responds with a smile. He makes his way to the bed on the right, removing his shoes and the tie around his hair. A woman comes up to Iruka and takes his temperature, then has him follow a light with his eyes. When she is satisfied, she is replaced by a man who attaches nodes to Iruka's temples.

The man walks away, and the door to the room opens. Tsunade walks in, nodding to Iruka when their eyes meet. Tsunade gestures behind her with a tilt of her head, and Iruka watches as Shizune pushes a wheelchair into the room.

Kakashi Hatake looks older than the day he left on the Expedition. Iruka doesn’t know how much time has passed for him, but he would guess they're still around the same age. An eye patch covers his left eyes, but a jagged scar peeks out of the top and bottom of the patch. He is thinner than Iruka remembers; the hospital robe he is garbed in hangs off of his body loosely. His good eye is open, but dull and lifeless.

Shizune wheels Kakashi over to the other bed, where he is lifted by two members of Inojin's team onto the bed and quickly hooked up to an IV. Iruka remembers that Kakashi hated to be poked and prodded, so it unsettles him as he watches Kakashi lie unresponsive as the scientists attach nodes to Kakashi's temples and check his vitals.

It feels surreal to finally see Kakashi again. Iruka is extremely relieved and grateful that Kakashi is alive, but also worried and stressed out over the strong possibility that Kakashi's consciousness may be lost forever. Iruka's heart aches when he tries to imagine what happened to put Kakashi in this state.

"This is it," Tsunade says from Iruka's side, and Iruka manages to tear his eyes away from Kakashi's motionless form to look at her. "Everything rides on this."

"I understand," Iruka replies seriously. He completely understands, but that only makes the task more daunting.

"You'll get what we need, I have no doubt about that. I also know you will do everything in your power to bring him back."

"I just hope everything in my power will be sufficient." Iruka glances over at Kakashi. Someone covers Kakashi with a blanket up to his waist.

"I believe it will," Tsunade says sternly, and Iruka looks at her again. She has her _I'm completely serious_ face on. " _We_ believe it will. You are the best at what you do, and besides, I know that Kakashi is very important to you. If you can't bring Kakashi back, nothing in this universe can."

Iruka nods, and Tsunade pats him on the shoulder before walking to Inojin. Iruka pushes himself back into the bed, and someone hooks an IV up to his arm. Iruka rests his head against the elevated back of the bed, waiting for Inojin's team to finish their preparations.

It isn't long before Inojin walks up to Iruka, holding a clipboard, and says, "We're ready. You have six hours before we have to pull you out."

Iruka nods. Inojin opens the stream in Iruka's IV that allows the drug that will put Iruka to sleep to flow through. The effects are almost immediate, and Iruka's eyes grow heavy. The whirr of the machines kicks up around him, and Iruka manages to turn his head to the side, looking at Kakashi. He hears someone say, "We'll see you when you get back, Iruka," and then everything goes black.

\---

Extraction - the process of breaking through the mental barriers of Catatonia to reach a person’s consciousness, where information can be exchanged. Since Catatonia is self-inflicted, it is also self-reversible. Only the Catatonic person can bring themselves out of Catatonia. The deeper the state of Catatonia, the more isolated the consciousness is and the harder it is to come out of it.

An Extractor’s consciousness is able to enter a Catatonic person’s mind with the help of advanced equipment linking their brainwaves together. Fully aware and with complete control over themselves, Extractors navigate the barriers put up through Catatonia in order to find the Catatonic person’s consciousness. Most people don’t realize they are in a state of Catatonia unless an Extractor is able to find their consciousness and pull them out, and it is extremely rare for them to come out of Catatonia without the aid of an Extractor.

The barriers put up within the Catatonic person’s brain manifest as something physical. Endless deserts with unbearable heat, vast bottomless oceans, or even the dense forests they read about in school filled with predators. While no physical harm can come to an Extractor while in another person’s mind, they can be stopped and thrown out of Extraction if the barriers are tough enough.

When Iruka opens his eyes, everything is bright white. His eyes begin to water from the intensity of the brightness, and he has to blink several times, letting his eyes adjust. When everything finally comes into focus, Iruka is surprised to find himself in a room. The room is vast, though, maybe even infinite, and completely white. He can’t tell if there is a ceiling or any walls, but his feet seem to be planted firmly on the floor.

To either side of Iruka is a door. They are not connected to any frames or walls. Next to those doors are more doors, and as Iruka begins to walk, he can see an infinite number of rows with an infinite amount of doors. He tries to twist the knob on one of the doors, and is not surprised to find it locked.

Iruka walks aimlessly through the rows, twisting doorknobs and failing to find one that is unlocked. He knows that searching each row will just prove fruitless, so he begins to examine the doors. He notices that they do not touch the floor – they seem to be levitating about six inches off of the ground. He tries to push one to see if it will move, but it does not budge. The doors have numbers on them, but they are not in order. The door to his right is labeled 253, while the door to his left is labeled 200007.

Iruka is feeling the sides of one of the doors for any other clues when a voice startles him.

“Maa, he’s not in that one.”

Iruka whirls around to see Kakashi leaning against a door. This Kakashi is different. He isn’t the shell of a man lying in the hospital bed back at Headquarters with a missing eye, nor is he the laid back genius of a pilot Iruka had trained with. This Kakashi is older than one who left Earth, clad in a pilot’s jumpsuit with slightly longer hair and a scruff of a beard.

“Then which one is he in?” Iruka asks.

“You know I can’t tell you that,” Kakashi says with a smirk.

“I had to try,” Iruka replies, a trace of humor in his voice. “Which part are you?”

“I’m his Will to Live.”

“Ah, so you’re here to help me, then.”

“As much as I can.”

“So what can you tell me?”

“That you look good for someone who is probably over a hundred years old.”

Iruka scowls at him and Kakashi smiles. Iruka didn’t realize how much he missed that smile until it was right in front of him again. Kakashi had a crooked smile full of mirth and mischief. 

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mess with me right now,” Iruka grumbles.

“Maa, you know I can only say what he wants me to say,” Kakashi replies, pushing himself off the door and closing the gap between them.

“And you know what he said to me before he left.” Iruka is now completely unamused, glaring at Kakashi. Kakashi’s smile falters, replaced by a frown.

“He didn’t…” Kakashi trails off, looking troubled. Iruka rolls his eyes. He doesn’t have time to be arguing with a fragment of Kakashi. He’d rather argue with the whole thing.

“This isn’t the time or the place,” Iruka says, and points to the door. “You’re his Will to Live, so help me help him live. What do the numbers mean?”

“Years,” Kakashi replies, all trace of humor gone. Iruka is glad to see him sticking to business now. “The numbers on the doors are years.”

“Really?” Iruka eyes the number “200007” marked on the door next to him. “Why is this number so large?”

“To throw you off.”

“Where is the right door?”

“About five hundred thousand miles that way,” Kakashi says, pointing off in the distance.

“Fantastic. How am I supposed to get there?”

“Well, you can walk,” Kakashi says, amusement in his voice. Iruka knows Kakashi can’t stay very serious for very long. “Or you can just bring the door here.”

“And how do you propose I do that?”

“By moving the doors, of course.”

“They don’t move when I push them.”

“Then you’re just going to have to use your head,” Kakashi replies, poking his temple with a finger for emphasis. Iruka narrows his eyes.

“Well, they don’t call me the best Extractor for nothing,” Iruka grumbles. Kakashi waggles his eyebrows at him, and the familiar gesture causes Iruka to smirk. “I guess I should get started then.”

Iruka turns around and starts to walk slowly through the rows, looking at each door as he passes. If the doors are supposed to move, then how? He’s tried pushing them, but they stay firmly in place. He quickly finds that pulling, kicking, and yelling at the doors doesn’t work either, all while Kakashi laughs at him. Iruka is currently kicking door number eighty-three hundred when he wonders, _where is door number one?_

That’s when the doors move.

Iruka is thrown back by a sudden gust of air when the rows of doors begin sliding as if on a conveyor belt. His back collides with something sturdy, and Kakashi’s arms wrap around Iruka’s waist to stop him from falling. Iruka doesn’t struggle away immediately, temporarily stunned at the sudden familiarity of being wrapped in Kakashi’s arms for the first time since he left on the Expedition. However, the rapidly moving rows of doors whooshing past them quickly snap him out of it, and he steps outside of Kakashi’s grasp.

After a few seconds, the doors slow down before coming to a stop, and the door in front of Iruka is labeled with the number one. Iruka tries to twist the doorknob, but it is locked.

“How did that happen?” he asks Kakashi.

“You used your head,” is the cryptic reply.

Iruka frowns. Iruka didn’t _do_ anything. He was in the process of trying to kick the door in when a random thought ran across his mind and-

Oh.

He used his head.

As realization dawns on Iruka’s face, he looks at Kakashi, who is smirking at him.

“I see,” Iruka says, turning to face door number one again. “Let me try that again, then.”

Iruka doesn’t know the number of the correct door and Kakashi’s Will to Live can’t tell him. Instead, he thinks, _I want to see the door that is unlocked._

Once again, the rows of doors begin to move. He has to quickly move out of the way once they start moving back and forth in addition to side to side to avoid being struck. He sticks close to Kakashi’s side, who looks calm and collected as the doors whiz past them. Several minutes pass at the doors pass by in a blur before they slow down, and the door that stops in front of Iruka is marked 2560.

“This is the unlocked door?” he asks Kakashi, who is staring at the number blankly.

“Yeah,” Kakashi replies. “It’s the year this all began.”

Year 2560. Iruka was sixteen at the time, barely beginning his training with ANBU as an Extractor. He didn’t start working with Team Minato 2562, after excelling in all of his training and surpassing some of his seniors. However, he knows that at seventeen, Kakashi had begun training as a pilot for Operation Endurance at Tsunade’s decree. Iruka doesn’t know exactly what happened at that time, especially since Kakashi was very careful not to reveal too much of his past.

“What’s on the other side of this door?”

“You’ll see,” is all Kakashi says.

Iruka just shrugs and reaches for the door, eager to proceed to the next barrier. Before he can twist the doorknob, Kakashi grabs his wrist, holding it tight.

“Whatever you see, just know that he tried to keep it from you because he cares about you,” Kakashi says, his tone grave.

“If he cares about me, why did he dismiss me and tell me to move on before he left?” Iruka says, anger and confusion lacing his voice.

“Because that’s what Hatake men do,” Kakashi replies coldly, letting go of Iruka’s wrist. Iruka can’t identify the emotion on his face as he says, “they leave the ones they love and never come back.”

Iruka pauses. Kakashi’s statement is loaded with a history that Iruka doesn’t fully understand, but he doesn’t have time to make sense of it. Instead, one thing rings clearly.

“He loved me?” Iruka asks, his voice barely above a whisper.

“You should go,” Kakashi says in lieu of an answer.

Iruka takes a deep breath. Kakashi never was one to give straight answers. Instead, he nods, and opens the door. The doorway doesn’t seem to lead anywhere. Iruka can see the rows of doors on the other side of this door, but he knows that if this door is the only one that is unlocked, then he was meant to step through it.

“He’s waiting for you,” Kakashi says before Iruka walks through the door, closing it behind him.

\---

Iruka is in a space suit on a planet covered in ice. He is immediately swept off of his feet by whipping winds and snow, falling to his knees. It takes time to gain mobility in the suit after the sudden change in environment, and when he is able to look up, he can’t see much. The blizzard and space suit limit his mobility, but right in front of him, he notices something staining the snow.

It’s blood.

Despite the snow storm, the blood forms an undisturbed trail leading forward, and Iruka knows he needs to follow it.

Iruka manages to pick himself up, steeling himself against the high winds and trudging forward, following the trail. He’s knocked off of the path a few times by powerful gusts, but he finds his way back each time, fighting against the storm. He moves slowly, constrained by the space suit, but he follows the blood trail for what seems like hours before he sees something on the horizon.

In the distance, there is a dome-shaped building. As he gets closer, he can make out letters on the building: ANBU, then underneath it in smaller letters, Uchiha. The blood trail leads straight to that building, and Iruka picks up his pace as much as he can in the storm. He recognizes the exterior of the building from files he’s read about the Lazarus missions, and he assumes that this is Kakashi’s memory of the planet Uchiha.

The blood trail stops several meters away from the entrance to the building, in front of a mound of snow. The snow mound looks out of place, so Iruka does the first thing that comes to mind: he digs. It takes forever but he eventually strikes something hard underneath the snow. He works as quickly as he can to clear the snow, discovering the helmet of a space suit and Kakashi’s face behind the visor.

Kakashi is unconscious. Iruka clears as much of the snow off of Kakashi as he can, then pulls him from the ground. He drags Kakashi’s body to the door of the base, which opens automatically, and inside.

Iruka removes the suit, since all of the air inside of these bases is regulated, and then proceeds to remove Kakashi’s suit. This Kakashi is even older than the one he met before. Half of his face is covered in blood, and a fresh wound splits his left eye down the middle. Iruka understands where the blood trail came from.

Iruka is glad to hear that Kakashi is still breathing, but only barely. After the suits are removed, Iruka carries Kakashi to the nearest cot, wrapping him up in as many blankets as he can find before lying him down.

“Is this a memory?” Iruka asks no one out loud, brushing his fingers through Kakashi’s hair. “What happened to you?”

The only response is the sound of storm whipping against the building.

Kakashi shows no signs of waking up, so with some reluctance, Iruka stands and beings to search the base. There are only a few rooms, one of them filled with empty cryosleep chambers, and another filled with stacks of temperature-regulated containers. The containers are unmarked and sealed tight. When Iruka has no luck opening one of them, he moves on.

There is no one else on the base, but Iruka is not surprised. He isn’t really on planet Uchiha, which is surprisingly an ice planet that appears uninhabitable. However, if the leader of Team Uchiha sent a green light signal for all these years, there must be something about this planet Iruka can’t see since he is constrained within Kakashi’s barrier.

Stuck in an empty base with an unconscious Kakashi on a desolate planet gives Iruka absolutely no clues on what he has to do next. When he returns to where he left Kakashi, the pilot is still unconscious but color has returned to his face. Iruka begins sorting through the scattered files on a table nearby, trying to find some sort of indication how to break this barrier.

The files on the table are reports about the planet they are on. They report large bodies of water, breathable air, and dense forests. Iruka wonders if these are reports for other parts of this planet, since all he saw on his hike to the base was ice and snow. He assumes he and Kakashi had suits because the air outside wasn’t breathable. However, the coordinates on a file reporting dense forests match the coordinates of Uchiha Base. Why was there such a discrepancy?

Sifting through more files, he finds a roster of Team Uchiha, and it makes his blood run cold.

Kabuto Yakushi. Biologist. Deceased from suffocation after his suit ran out of oxygen.

Itachi Uchiha. Geographer and cartographer. Deceased from drowning after falling through thin ice.

Danzo Shimura. Pilot. Deceased from suicide.

Madara Uchiha. Physicist and Captain of Team Uchiha. Alive.

None of this makes any sense. The reports about the living conditions on this planet are falsified, and the deaths of the crew members do not sit well in Iruka’s gut.

“What happened here?” Iruka whispers to himself.

“The truth.”

Iruka turns around, a report in each hand, and looks at Kakashi. Kakashi had managed to push the blankets off of himself and place both of his feet on the floor, but he sits with his head buried in one hand so that Iruka can’t see his face. His voice is gruff and unsteady.

“What is the truth?” Iruka asks.

“That everything was a lie.”

Iruka notices a dark red bead of blood forming on his knuckle, as if it’s seeping through the fingers he has his head resting in. Iruka doesn’t miss the raw pain in Kakashi’s voice.

“What was a lie, Kakashi? Tell me,” Iruka says softly, trying to sound as soothing as possible. He hears Kakashi take a jagged, broken breath.

“You can’t be saved,” Kakashi answers brokenly, and blood begins to drip from his hand onto the floor. “They left that planet so they could save it, so that they could bring everyone here. But it was never intended for them to come back, just like it was never intended for his father to come back.”

Iruka watches as Kakashi’s shoulders begin to tremble and the blood seeping from his fingers drips faster and faster.

“I don’t understand,” Iruka says, setting the reports back on to the table and making his way toward Kakashi. Iruka can feel something in his chest aching at the sight of this broken Kakashi, obviously trying to hold back his sobs and bleeding all over the floor. Iruka wants nothing more than to comfort him.

“The Equation is unsolvable,” Kakashi says roughly. “But they had a Plan B. Millions of embryos created in a lab, shipped here with the Lazarus missions to repopulate the human race.”

Iruka kneels in front of Kakashi, whose face is still buried in his hand. Embryos? Does that mean…

“Everyone on Earth is going to die, and he can’t save them,” Kakashi cries, and Iruka’s eyes sting with emotion as he watches this Kakashi bear his pain. “He can’t save you, Iruka. You’re going to die, and he’s so, so sorry. He wanted to save you the most of all.”

“Kakashi,” Iruka breathes. He reaches for Kakashi’s wrist, ignoring the blood dripping onto his own arm. “Which part are you?”

Kakashi lets Iruka pull his hand away, revealing a freshly sliced left eye with blood streaming down his face, and the right eye overflowing with fresh tears.

“I’m his Loss,” Kakashi manages to choke out. “He lost you, Iruka. He lost you, just like he lost his father and mother and he lost his team and he lost the Earth.”

“No, no he didn’t,” Iruka says, moving to run his fingers through Kakashi’s hair in a soothing motion. “He never lost me, do you see? I’m here and I’m trying to save him. I’m trying to figure out what happened to the rest of Team Minato and how we can save everyone else, but you need to tell me what I have to do.”

“You’re going to die, Iruka,” Kakashi says instead, as if he didn’t hear a word that Iruka said. “He just wanted to see you again, he just wanted to save you, he just wanted to tell you--”

Kakashi begins to sob.

During the entire time Iruka had known Kakashi, Iruka had never seen him shed a tear. To Iruka, Kakashi was the definition of strength. He was always cool and collected or evasive and flirtatious. He excelled at everything he did and never let his emotions get the best of him.

Now, watching Kakashi’s Loss break down in front of him, Iruka wonders how much Kakashi kept bottled inside. Had there always been a piece of Kakashi sobbing on the inside?

Iruka pushes himself up until he straddles Kakashi’s lap, pressing their upper bodies together. He wraps his arms around Kakashi’s shoulders and holds Kakashi’s head against his shoulder. Kakashi’s arms wrap tightly around Iruka’s body, holding him close.

“It’s okay, Kakashi,” Iruka croons. “It’s okay.”

They sit like that for what seems like hours, and Iruka’s heart breaks a little more with each passing moment until Kakashi begins to quiet down. Slowly, Kakashi’s breathing evens out and the room becomes silent. Iruka just continues to run his fingers through Kakashi’s hair.

“He’s waiting for you,” Kakashi mumbles into Iruka’s shoulder.

“I know,” Iruka says softly. “I have to break the barrier first before I can get to him.”

“You already have.” Kakashi pulls his head back and looks up at Iruka. Iruka is surprised to see that the bleeding wound on Kakashi’s face has now completely healed, leaving a jagged scar in its place. Iruka reaches for it tentatively, only allowing himself to run a feather light touch over the scar when Kakashi nods in approval. “Just go through the door.”

Iruka slides off of Kakashi’s lap, and Kakashi lets his hands fall back to his side.

“He’s never shown me this part of him,” Iruka says.

“He has always considered me weak,” Kakashi replies. “Until now.”

Iruka leans down and presses a chaste kiss to Kakashi’s forehead.

“I would have accepted you then,” Iruka murmurs. “And I always will.”

“I think he understands that now,” Kakashi says with a small smile. Iruka smiles in return.

He then turns around and heads for the exit of Uchiha Base.

\---

Iruka is stardust.

He is the cosmic base everything is made out of. He has no form, yet has all forms. He can be anything and nothing, destructive or creative, vengeful or merciful.

Without a corporeal form, Iruka feels free. He travels the universe, exploring star systems and galaxies, marveling at their beauty. He caresses the stars, basking in their warmth, and takes a piece of each planet he visits for safe keeping. He gathers more and more stardust in his journeys, each piece becoming a part of him, and he is extremely content.

However, as time passes, Iruka begins to feel like something is missing. His interstellar journey begins to stall, and he is less and less satisfied with each new planet he visits. He feels lonely, and realizes that there is a piece of him missing. This missing piece of stardust seems very important, and when he tries to remember where it is, he can only come up with _home._

But Iruka doesn't remember his home. He has seen countless solar systems, and can't remember which one he came from. He panics, and barrels through the universe, searching frantically for a planet that reminds him of home. He moves planets and stars that are in his way and searches, searches, searches. He needs that missing piece of stardust. Something tells him it is in trouble and it needs to return back to him.

Eternity passes, and Iruka wants to give up. He feels dull and tired, and the missing piece of stardust feels like a gaping wound. However, right when Iruka is about to give up all hope, he comes upon a brilliant blue planet that is slowly becoming overrun with dust. It is so familiar, so welcoming, that Iruka knows this is his home. He found his home, and his missing piece of stardust is on this planet, waiting for him.

\---

Iruka goes to this planet, zipping through the atmosphere, searching for his missing piece of stardust. He can almost feel it, the missing piece tugging him toward where he needs to be, and he follows that instinct to a city encased in a dome he knows as _Konoha_. Inside of that dome, Iruka comes across a large compound, sealed inside of a large gate and surrounded by thick brick walls.

As Iruka approaches the gate, he realizes he has a body again. He remembers where he is, and what he is supposed to do, and as he reads the word _Hatake_ inscribed on a nameplate across the gate, he knows that this is the final barrier, and Kakashi is inside.

Iruka tries to open the gates, but they seem to be locked. He doesn't see anything that could help him unlock the gate - no intercom, not device for a password, no keyhole. He is sure that if he tried to climb it, something would prevent him from crossing over. So instead, Iruka grabs a bar of the gate in each hand, and rests his head against it.

"Kakashi," Iruka begins, closing his eyes. He can still feel the missing part of himself, his missing piece, aching to be complete. "I need you to let me inside. Please unlock the gate."

Nothing happens.

"Kakashi, _please_ ," Iruka tries again. "You're in Catatonia and we need to know what happened during the Expedition. I know you're in there, you need to let me in."

Still, the gate does not budge. Iruka frowns. Typical Kakashi, refusing to listen to reason.

"Kakashi Hatake, pilot of the _Will of Fire_ ," Iruka says sternly, his voice increasing in volume with each word. "You have been gone for ninety-six years, do you understand me? Ninety-six years have passed and yet I'm still here, waiting for you. I don't care if you don't want me around. I don't care if you want me to 'move on'. You will let me into this damn compound whether you like it or not and tell me what the hell happened during the Expedition and you will come with me when we get out of here, do you hear me?"

A few silent seconds tick by, and then with a loud creak the gates open. Iruka walks into the large compound, following the path along an expansive yard to a large house. Once again, there is a nameplate on the door with the word _Hatake_ inscribed on it. Iruka suspects it is Kakashi's childhood home, since he knows that Kakashi lived in the dorms on Headquarters during training.

Iruka enters the home easily, searching the rooms for any sign of Kakashi. The house is spotless and neat, but it feels unlived in and impersonal. There are many rooms, but Iruka doesn't find Kakashi in any of them. He's passing by the large kitchen when he sees a door that leads outside to the backyard. He makes his way outside.

The backyard is large, and in the middle is a large oak tree. He sees a figure with a shock of white hair standing underneath the tree's shade, and Iruka knows he has finally found Kakashi.

"I wanted to bring you here," Kakashi says when Iruka approaches him, but doesn't turn around. "This was my favorite spot as a kid."

"Then why didn't you?" Iruka asks.

"Maa, I'm weak, I suppose," Kakashi says, turning around to face him. He has one hand in his pocket and the other behind his head with a sheepish grin on his face. This Kakashi is the one Iruka remembers so well. His hair is short and wild, both of his eyes are intact and his face is clean shaven. "Too many memories here."

"I understand," Iruka offers. He really does. This is the home Sakumo Hatake left for the Lazarus missions, as well as the home Kakashi's mother died in.

"So, I'm in Catatonia? That figures," Kakashi says, looking up at the expanse of the oak tree's large branches and abundance of leaves. "I wouldn't come here on my own."

"Why did you go into Catatonia, Kakashi?" Iruka asks, watching Kakashi watch the leaves.

"Because if I didn't, I would have killed myself." Kakashi looks back at Iruka with a steely gaze. Something in Iruka's chest clenches.

"What happened?" Iruka asks softly, taking a small step towards Kakashi. He wants to reach out and touch Kakashi's face, offer some sort of comfort, but he keeps his hands to himself. This Kakashi is the one that told him to move on. This is the sum of all of the parts that make Kakashi. This is what some people call a soul.

"Everyone is dead." Kakashi's voice is throaty, but steady. "Or, at least, I presume they all are. I watched two of them of die and probably sent the third one to his death."

"Tell me," Iruka says, and Kakashi stares at him for a long time before gesturing with his head toward the trunk of the oak tree. They both sit at the base of the tree, their shoulders almost touching, and Kakashi begins his story.

\---

The first planet Team Minato visited was Senju. It was the planet closest to where the wormhole had spit them out, but it was also closest to the black hole Gargantua, which would cause gravitational time dilation. They were able to calculate that one hour on Senju would be seven years on Earth before landing. Understanding the situation, they decided to descend to Senju on a transporter, collect as much data as they can, and return to the _Will of Fire_ , which would stay outside the pull of Gargantua’s gravitational time dilation. Obito was nominated to stay on the _Will of Fire_ as Minato, Rin, and Kakashi went to Senju.

They landed in a shallow body of water with mountains in the distance, but could not spot any sign of Team Senju. They searched, using a locator to find the beacon transmitting the green light signal, and it was then that Rin noticed the mountains seemed to be getting closer. The team hastened their search for the beacon, noticing some debris in the water from another ship. Once the beacon was located, about five hundred meters away, Rin dashed to retrieve it.

However, Rin had been half-correct when she noticed the mountains were getting closer. They were definitely approaching the team, but they weren't mountains. It was a wave, tens of thousands of feet tall, and they were in the trough of that wave.

Kakashi shouted at Rin to forget the beacon and return to the ship. It would take too long for her to retrieve it and make it back in time before the wave hit. Rin persisted, and managed to grab the beacon and run back to the ship as the wave made its rapid approach. Minato and Kakashi were already inside of the transporter, but Rin had only managed to pass the beacon off to Minato before being swept off by the initial impact of the wave, killed on the spot.

Their departure was delayed as they fought their way out of the wave and out of the atmosphere, returning to the _Will of Fire_. They discovered that their time on Senju had been twenty-three Earth years, and encountered a middle-aged Obito.

Their venture to Senju had proved fruitless, and the team mourned Rin's death. It was especially hard on Obito, who had been in love with Rin. The beacon had no information on it, presumably because due to time dilation, Team Senju had only landed on that planet an hour before they had, and had suffered the same fate as Rin. 

The mission was still salvageable, but there was a complication. The extra two decades spent in orbit around Senju had wasted the _Will of Fire_ 's fuel, and they only had enough fuel to make it back to one planet before returning to Earth. They decided to visit Uchiha, since it was the only planet still transmitting data. Since they were within range, Obito had received incoming reports of land mass, water content, air compositions, and flora and fauna from both Uchiha and Hatake, but Hatake had stopped transmitting several years earlier. Even though there was a gnawing feeling in his stomach at the realization he may never see his father again, Kakashi piloted the _Will of Fire_ to Uchiha.

They were surprised to find that Uchiha is a desolate planet riddled with ice and blizzards. When they entered Uchiha Base and woke Madara Uchiha up from cryosleep, they read his reports that habitable land is below the mountain they're currently on. When questioned about the rest of his crew, Madara sadly handed them a report of their deaths.

Team Minato also discovered the presence of the embryos packed in unmarked crates at Uchiha Base. Madara revealed that the whole purpose of the Lazarus missions was to establish a base on a new planet and begin repopulation of the human race with the embryos. When asked why these embryos were even needed when they were supposed to be rescuing the people on Earth, Madara told them it was never intended for Team Minato to return to Earth – only resupply the Lazarus missions’ teams and assist in raising the children born from the embryos.

Team Minato was disheartened, and Obito even fought with Madara, who ended it all with a solid punch to Obito’s jaw. After a day spent on this planet, Team Minato decided it was worth the trip to send one person back to Earth with news of the hospitable planet and to try and assist with solving the Equation. They decided the only person who can do that would be Kakashi, since he was the pilot of the _Will of Fire_.

On the second day, Minato noticed some of the computers containing the data collected have been pulled apart, and when questioned, Madara said they had a bug in their wiring and he had been trying to fix them to no avail. Minato offered his expertise to fix them, and Madara happily let him. That's when he offered to take Kakashi to a cliff of the mountain where they could see the habitable land at the base. Obito offered to stay and help Minato.

Kakashi followed Madara, and the closer they got to the cliff, the less he was convinced there was habitable land. He was proven right when they reached the cliff and there was nothing but ice as far as the eye could see. That's when Madara took Kakashi's helmet off and slashed at his face with a knife, permanently damaging his left eye. Madara tossed Kakashi's helmet far out of reach, leaving Kakashi to suffocate.

Madara, knowing Kakashi would die, explained that he'd been falsifying data for years in hopes that someone would rescue him. If he had given a red light signal like he should have, he would have been left to die. His team did not agree with him, and that's when they had all suffered the same fate as Kakashi at Madara's hand. Madara then transmitted the green light signal and false data before going into cryosleep, awaiting his rescue.

Madara left Kakashi to die, but Kakashi managed to pull himself toward his helmet just before he was about to pass out from lack of oxygen. He pulled it on and got Obito on the radio, warning him about Madara. That's when an explosion was heard. Uchiha Base went up in flames as a result of Minato rewiring the computers and triggering a bomb planted by Madara, which destroyed all of the embryos and killed Minato. Obito had been outside, just clear of the blast and safe from harm.

Obito got on the transporter and rushed to save Kakashi, but that gave Madara enough time to get on his own shuttle and make way to the _Will of Fire_ , which he planned to pilot back to Earth by himself. Once Kakashi was rescued by Obito, they chased after Madara, who was delirious and tried to dock with the _Will of Fire_ improperly. Despite Obito and Kakashi's warnings, Madara opened the hatch and it depressurized, blowing up the hatch and Madara's ship, killing Madara in the process and damaging the _Will of Fire_. Kakashi managed to use the transporter to dock at another hatch.

With two members of their team dead and Uchiha being a lost planet, Kakashi and Obito were unsure of what to do. There wasn't enough fuel to make it to Hatake and also return to Earth. Kakashi came up with a plan to use Gargantua's gravitational field to slingshot the _Will of Fire_ toward Hatake, saving fuel and giving their mission one last hope. However, the _Will of Fire_ was too heavy to accomplish this.

Kakashi decided to sacrifice himself to send Obito to Hatake. Obito argued with Kakashi, begging him to stay, but Kakashi refused, claiming their mission was the only priority, not his life or anyone else's. They set the _Will of Fire_ on its course, and as they approached the black hole, Obito detached in a transporter filled with supplies and rocketed off toward Hatake as Kakashi on the _Will of Fire_ was sucked in to the black hole.

\---

Iruka has tears in his eyes. The pain and loss Kakashi had to endure during the Expedition must have been unbearable. But yet, here he is, alive and relatively sane if the Catatonia is dismissed.

"Kakashi," Iruka says, his voice watery. "How are you alive?"

Kakashi doesn't answer immediately. Instead, he looks like he's trying to figure the answer out himself.

"I don't know," Kakashi answers. "I thought I was dead. Once inside of the black hole, the _Will of Fire_ was destroyed and I was sure I was going to die. It was pitch black and I was falling for a very long time, until I just…stopped."

Iruka reaches over to grab Kakashi's hand, but stops himself. Kakashi notices, and instead pulls Iruka's hand into both of his, rubbing his thumbs along Iruka's knuckles.

"When I stopped, I opened my eyes and I was in this weird place. It looked like I was in a room where the walls were made out of strings of thread, but there was no floor or ceiling. If I got close enough to the thread, I could see through it."

"What did you see through the thread?"

"You."

Iruka furrows his brows in confusion.

"I saw you, Iruka, in different moments of your life. I saw you as a kid get hit with a softball in the face, giving you that scar. I saw you when you had your first kiss. I saw you excel through Extraction training. I saw the first time we made love. And then I saw you cry the day I left."

That was a lot to take in. Not only had Kakashi survived being sucked into a black hole, but he had seen _Iruka_ in the black hole.

"I tried to call out to you, Iruka," Kakashi says, and brings Iruka's hand to his lips. "For all those years I was on the Expedition, the only thought that helped me sleep at night was that I was going to save you - that I was doing all of this for you. At an earlier point of my life, I would have let the world burn, but then I met you and I had a purpose."

Unshed tears finally spill over Iruka's cheeks. "Then why did you tell me to move on, Kakashi? Why did you leave like that?"

"Because I was leaving and I had no idea when I would be back, or if I would even be back at all," Kakashi said, holding Iruka's gaze with his own. "You deserved someone at your side through thick and thin, and I would be gone for decades before seeing you again. I didn't want you to wait for me."

"Kakashi," Iruka whispers, unsure of what to say.

"I was leaving you, just like my father left my mother. Even though she understood the importance of his mission, her heart was irreparably broken. I'm positive the melanoma wouldn't have killed her so quickly if she hadn't lost my father, and I didn't want you to suffer the same fate."

"Kakashi, you stupid bastard," Iruka growls. "I never moved on."

"I know," Kakashi replies. "I saw." He grabs Iruka's other hand and pulls Iruka into his arms, pressing their foreheads together. "I saw you go thirteen years without ever looking at someone else, and I knew I had made a mistake."

"I never stopped loving you, Kakashi," Iruka whispers.

"I never stopped loving you either," Kakashi says and presses his lips against Iruka's in a slow, gentle kiss. They kiss for a few moments, Iruka's heart racing the entire time, before Iruka pulls away, running his hands down each side of Kakashi's face.

"How are you here?" Iruka asks, trying to memorize every detail of Kakashi's features. "How did you escape the black hole?"

"I was in a tesseract," he explains, leaning his cheek into Iruka's touch. "It was created by humans from the future who have harnessed fifth-dimensional physics. They placed the tesseract in the black hole, knowing I would be sucked in, and gave me solace in seeing you again when I thought I was going to die. I never saw them, but after staying inside the tesseract and watching you for a while, something reached out to me, and when it touched me, I knew."

"Knew what?"

"The missing part of the Equation. The solution that will get _Jiraiya_ off the planet and through the wormhole."

Iruka runs his thumb over Kakashi's lips. This man, who has been to Hell and back more times than Iruka can count, has saved them all.

"You did it," Iruka whispers, leaning in to kiss Kakashi. "You really did it."

"It's all on that chip," Kakashi says against Iruka's lips. "The password is _Will of Fire_ in binary. The humans that gave me the solution to the Equation also pulled me out of the tesseract and stuck me on a somehow reconstructed _Will of Fire_ set to autopilot on a course for Earth. That's when I put myself into Catatonia. I felt like I was going crazy and all I wanted to do was die."

“It’s okay,” Iruka says with a smile. “You’re home now, and we can give them the good news. You can heal.”

“I can’t go with you, Iruka.”

He feels as if his veins are flooded with ice. That’s also when he begins to feel a tug at his navel, a sign that he is being pulled out of Extraction.

“Why not?”

“I’m supposed to die with my team,” Kakashi says, running his knuckles down Iruka’s cheek. “I completed my mission. I got the information I needed to help our people, and I got to see you one last time.”

Iruka shakes his head. “Kakashi, don’t do this…”

“Team Minato wasn’t meant to survive the Expedition, Iruka,” Kakashi continues, his expression pained. “I came back broken. How can I go back when I left everyone else to die? I was supposed to die, too, in that black hole. I understood that when I sent Obito off to Hatake. I sacrificed myself for the Expedition. I don’t deserve to live.”

“You’re wrong,” Iruka says firmly. The pulling in his stomach grows stronger, but he tries to fight it. The world around him begins to swirl. He focuses on Kakashi, trying to ground himself. “Everyone deserves to live, regardless of their past. You deserve to live most of all. You were given a second chance, Kakashi. You were sent home for a reason.”

Kakashi only shakes his head, taking each of Iruka’s hands into his, and pressing a kiss to each. “It’s time for you to go, Iruka. I’ve done all I can.”

“Don’t give up, Kakashi,” Iruka shouts, angry now. He feels nauseous from fighting the pull. Kakashi seems to be getting further and further away, even though he’s still holding on to his hands. “I waited almost a century for you. You bastard, don’t give up on living!”

Kakashi lets go of Iruka’s hands, and the world begins to pull away.

“Don’t give up, Kakashi! Don’t give up on us! Come back with me, and we can move forward together.” Iruka keeps reaching for Kakashi, who is being pulled away by the swirl of the world. He can see Kakashi looking at him with a pained expression.

“Iruka…”

“I love you, damn it, and I know you love me!” Iruka shouts, fighting against the pull that threatens to turn him inside out. “You deserve to live, you deserve to be with me, you deserve everything and more and I refuse to leave here without you!” He watches as Kakashi looks away.

“You mean everything to me.” Iruka hangs his head, feeling defeated yet still reaching out for Kakashi. He can’t fight it much longer. They’re pulling him out of Extraction, his time limit reached, and the longer he fights it, the more risks are involved. “Don’t make me go back alone.”

Everything is a blurred swirl around him. The ground is indistinguishable from the sky, and slowly the colors begin to break off in pieces as the world crumbles around them. Iruka keeps his hand out, his head bowed, and he doesn’t remember ever feeling so crushed in his entire life.

“Come with me Kakashi,” he pleads. “Be with me.”

Just before the world cracks and everything shatters around them, Iruka feels something warm in his palm. Fingers clasp around his, and he looks up. Through the blur of his tears he sees Kakashi standing in front of him, Iruka’s hand wrapped in his. Kakashi looks unsure of what he’s doing, as if he might be making a mistake, but he gives Iruka a small smile and says, “Okay.”

And they shatter together.

\---

In a distant galaxy, during a time unclear, a stray transporter makes a rocky descent on to the planet Hatake. The cruiser lands on a beach, and its passenger crawls out of the vessel, sobbing and screaming. He is alone, utterly alone.

The lone passenger does not leave the vicinity of his ship, unable to bring himself to explore this new planet. His crew is gone, all of them dead. The crew on this planet is probably dead as well. What is he supposed to do here? How is he supposed to survive? He is going to die alone, millions of light years away from the next human being.

On the third day on this new planet, the passenger is woken up abruptly by someone spilling water over his face. He jumps up, whirling around, completely disoriented, before he hears a voice.

“Hey, hey, calm down there. We’re friends.”

The passenger stops, his vision finally coming in to focus, and he realizes there are two people standing in front of him. One of them is a man in his fifties with white hair, and the other has jet black hair and red eyes. The passenger is stunned into silence. He recognizes these men.

“My name is Sakumo, and this is Shisui,” the white haired man says. “We saw you enter the atmosphere a few days ago and came to investigate. What is your name?”

“O-Obito,” the passenger stutters. “My name is Obito.”

“Welcome to planet Hatake, Obito,” Sakumo says with a smile. Shisui just looks bored. “Will you tell us your story?”

“Yeah,” Obito says, licking his dry lips. He’s not alone anymore. He’s not going to die a pitiful death. “Yeah, I will.”  
.  
.  
.  
.  
 _. . .transmission complete . . ._


End file.
